Will Standards Help?

I read with interest the article written by John J. Goglia (see AM general aviation edition, April 2007, page 36). Mr. Goglia has interesting points about higher paying jobs. When you consider the liability associated with being an A&P mechanic versus working on an automobile there is no comparison. I know of no place to pull over when you are at 30,000 feet and something goes wrong. I know of no regulatory department ready to remove your certification in the automobile industry should there be a problem with your car. Anyone who has taken their car to a dealership for repair knows the shop rates are as high if not higher than those of many repair stations. Consider that wages are comparable for both industries, with many automobile mechanics getting higher wages than those in the aircraft industry, given the same experience level. Few automobile dealerships have a night shift that requires working 12 – 14 hours a night. Aircraft owners are willing to spend more money to detail their aircraft, than to fix their aircraft correctly, then complain about the maintenance bill on their multi-million dollar aircraft. Owners complain when they show up with no appointment and their aircraft can’t be accomodated. Many aircraft companies talk about safety, ethics, honesty and integrity, but the bottom line is money. As a former manager of a quality control department, I have fought the battles over safety versus time. I have fought the conflict of interest matters. The sad part is the industry has no one to blame but themselves.

Name and address withheld by request.

On Disconnecting Hal

I read your Back Shop column, "Disconnecting Hal" (see AM commercial edition, April 2007, page 38) with interest and amusement.

I never knew Ken Olsen but I worked for his company Digital Equipment Company for 10 years as a field service engineer. The PDP-8 family of computer came and (mostly) went by the time I came on board with Digital. For me, working on a PDP-8 (which was a 12 bit minicomputer) was an experience not unlike CF34 techs cracking open one of Frank Whittle’s contraptions for the purpose of troubleshooting and repair. It was a rather bewildering experience.

The typical PDP-8 system sported a pair of RK05 hard disk drives, each with a whopping 2.5 MB of storage in a removable, hard plastic cartridge. A single RK05 weighed about 150 pounds. Folks ran businesses on these machines!

The later series of machines (the PDP-11 family) had impressive performance, especially the top of the line PDP-11/70. One major city, Baltimore, bragged that their 911 system ran nicely on a PDP-11/70 while most visitors were astonished that it could be done at all without a mainframe computer. El Paso had two newspapers running on one. Both operations kept a "hot spare" system running side-by-side in case the primary system failed. Each of these systems (911 and the Daily Planet) operated on a whopping RP06 hard drive with an amazing 176 MB of permanent storage. The disk drive was the size of a washing machine.

Beginning with Apple II, but especially, with the IBM PC, a paradigm shift began. The so-called "minicomputer" was left behind in the refuse-heap of history. What is the message here? Embrace new technologies or vanish into the past. Unplug HAL and step boldly ahead. Don’t look back (except for fun).

Charlie Hannan, A&P/IA and former computer geek

Oshkosh, Wisconsin